The sewing room is operational, if not organized. My knees and back are thankful to have a table to work on. Hours kneeling on the floor to draft patterns makes me creaky and sore.

Even though I am still working on drafting the perfectly fitted button-up, I used what I learned over the months to fix the armholes and sleeves on a tunic pattern.

The pattern was made by Unique Patterns to my measurements, but, like most woven shirt patterns, when I sewed in the sleeve, the underarm armhole/sleeve seam was halfway between my pit and my elbow, severely limiting movement. Also, the sleeve cap had two inches of extra fabric that I had to pleat or gather. I didn't want puffed sleeves and the pattern picture also shows them as smooth.

On my first muslin, I simply took in 2 inches from the shoulder seams of the sewn tunic and pleated the sleeve cap. When I tried to cut the next muslin with two inches taken off the top of the pattern, the armholes were too small for anything other than a sleeveless top and the neckline was too high. How did that happen?

Months later, after successfully drafting a sleeve and armhole for a woven button-up, I applied the same principles to the tunic. I don't know why, but the sleeve is not symmetrical, making it impossible to cut on the fold. The back and front armhole also have different measurements and shapes.

After some fiddling this is what I figured out:

After tracing the pattern pieces, draw in the seam lines. Otherwise, you will sometimes measure from the seam line and sometimes from the cut line, causing much difficulty and frustration.

Use the original pattern piece for each tracing, or else slowly your pattern piece will become larger.

Mark the original seam line in something that won't erase. You'll want to use this as reference for your changes.

Start with the smallest measurement (largest cut of fabric) because you can fold over excess fabric to make the measurement larger, but it's a pain to add extra fabric.

Don't cut until you know what you've marked will work the way you want it to work.

After much fussing and redoing and staring and seam ripping and exhaustion, I ended up with a sleeve that fits smoothly into the armhole with no puffing and an armhole that sits at my pit, allowing me to raise my arms and hug myself without hiking up my shirt and adjusting the whole upper part beforehand.

Maybe the armhole is a little tight. When I hug myself or raise my hands to touch the ceiling, I can feel the back seam digging into me and the back fabric stretched to the limit. Getting the shirt off also requires calmness; at first I feel stuck. I also wonder if I've made other fit challenges with these changes. Are those excess wrinkles coming from the arm seam towards the bust? I also don't understand why when the sleeve seam measurement is the same as the corresponding armhole measurement, the sleeve is 1/4-inch too long.

It's not a perfect fix and as I learn more, I will probably make changes. For now, though, it's better than what it was. I'm happy to be able to move my arms.

These are my new armhole patterns. The orange line is the original seam line.

It's hard to see, but I took about 2 inches off the top of the sleeve cap. The original pattern is on the bottom (white paper); the new pattern is on top (transparent paper).

I came across your post this morning while looking Googling "raising armhole". I am also working on a Unique Patterns shirt, with a ridiculously low armhole. I have had this pattern in my stash for at least a couple years now, and am just now getting around to working with it. Like you, I found that Unique Patterns weren't fully custom - while they changed the bust point and dart (lowered and much larger), they completely missed my left/right shoulder asymmetry, and the armhole doesn't appear to have been altered at all. (I still have to split the bust dart into two or three separate darts to deal with my 32F, because there's no way to sew a single dart in my size w/o ending up with a huge dimple at the bust point.)

I just wanted to make a quick comment about something you wrote (and my apologies if this is something you've already figured out by now, I realize this is an old post):

"I don't know why, but the sleeve is not symmetrical, making it impossible to cut on the fold. The back and front armhole also have different measurements and shapes."

Unless the garment is very loose fitting, sleeves should never be symmetrical. Unfortunately, between cutting the armholes too low and shaping them incorrectly (and don't get me started about the excessive sleeve cap ease!), most of the major pattern companies' sleeves fit terribly without significant re-drafting of the pattern.

There's a really good explanation of how to fix armholes here: http://fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-re-shape-armholes/ and also this one about sleeve cap ease: http://fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-remove-sleeve-cap-ease/

Hope you find them helpful - now that I've more or less mastered the FBA (full bust adjustment), armholes and sleeves have become the bane of my sewing existence. :-)

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Jill

4/13/2013 11:48:36

Thanks for the comment! Since I wrote this, I have learned much more about drafting, sleeves, and armholes. Having the front and back sleeve different really makes a huge improvement in fit. Like you, armholes and sleeves are also my bane, but I think I am very, very close to an acceptable fit with very little ease in the sleeve cap. I never have figured out why commercial patterns have two to four or more inches of ease there when the style is supposed to be a smooth, not puffed, fit.

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About Me

Hi! I live in Virginia. My mom taught me to sew. I think I started at 4 or 5 by sewing buttons onto a handkerchief, but don't trust my memory. That was a long time ago. As a teenager, I was more interested in completing projects than learning good sewing techniques. Now, I am teaching myself some things I missed. My sewing interests are in learning to make alterations to and draft patterns to fit my petite 4'11" tall, 32" chest, 45" hip body.